Chapter 309: Incoming Storm Cloud

"He is the strongest," as soon as Doevm finished his sentence, he was shoved forward by the tormentor, who acted as the leader out of the eight red robed War Monks. His grizzled, scarred face didn't carry a hint of fear as he gazed upon the ashes ahead.

"So I've heard," the tormentor said. "But if that were the case, if Maximus Draken was really as invincible as you claimed, you and your brother wouldn't be here. We have Eric to thank for that." He reached over and pat the apprentice War Monk on the back. Eric winced and unconsciously rubbed at the scars at the tips of his fingers.

'As much as I hate to admit it...' Cerlius thought. 'These people have enough leverage to threaten father now that they have us. That traitor…' He turned and spat at dead number two. Eric let himself get hit, and continued onwards with his head lowered.

Lightning flashed as the group and Maximus Draken drew nearer to one another. An unusually shiny luster of sweat and oil had mixed into father's messy blue hair. He had always kept his chin clean in the past. Now he had an awkward stubble, an unkempt look that Cerlius had never seen in his entire life. Large bags hung under father's golden eyes.

'Wait a minute,' Cerlius thought. 'My brother and I were trapped in the monastery's dungeon for five days straight. The War Monks said father had been scouring all of Enloa for us during that time. Has he rested in between all his fights?' A bit of bile rose up at the back of his throat, and he swallowed it back down. 'Father's the strongest. He didn't lose to the Demon king and he won't lose to these monsters.'

The group halted. The siblings were pushed down to their knees and held by their cuffs like disobedient mutts. "That's far enough," the tormentor said. Father stopped a hundred feet away, but it felt as if he was much closer. He loomed like the western stormclouds, which began to spread shadows along the valley.

"Maximus Draken," the tormentor said. "Your rampage has left monasteries across Enloa in shambles. Even if you have defeated the Demon King, we cannot condone the thousands of casualties within the past five days. Your actions are less in line of what a hero would do and more like that of a villain.

We have been watching you ever since you absorbed the Demon King's soul. It's like you're a different person. His soul has warped your mind. We know you've been sneaking around the world in order to hide stockades of knowledge for future generations to discover. That very information, Soul Magic, is meant to kill a being as powerful as the goddess. How can you not understand what you're doing? By allowing anyone to gain this information you put the goddess at risk. What other goal can there be?"

Cerlius looked at Doevm and whispered: "Father absorbed the Demon King? He never told us that."

Doevm shook his head. "I didn't know either, but it makes sense. The Demon King can only be killed by the hero. The hero, father, is only one who has the power to absorb souls. Ergo the hero must have absorbed the Demon King."

"So the War Monks are worried because father won?" Cerlius would have laughed if not for his overwhelming compulsion to stab one of those fools. "The God of Evil is in hiding. His champion was defeated. Father is a good person. He probably has a reason for sneaking around."

"I know that he's good..." Doevm said. "but the War Monks don't."

"I did absorb the Demon King," Maximus admitted. "And through his memories I sensed a frightening power, one even I may have trouble defeating. There is still a threat out there, and it is not my children. It's stronger than the God of Evil and the goddess combined. If it's left alone I don't know what it could do to this world, or what it has already done." His voice shook. Cerlius didn't know if that was because of the circumstances or the being he spoke of.

"That is because you lack faith in our goddess," the tormentor snapped. "Look at yourself. You are fearful of things that do not exist. The goddess knows all. She prophesied your destiny: a great evil that you have already defeated. Peace has been restored, a peace which you have broken. Tell us the locations of your legacies and you'll get your children back." He motioned to the guards, who put knives against the siblings' throats. Blood trickled down where the blade and flesh met. A mere flick of the wrist and they'd be dead.

Bolts of lightning showered down, illuminating Maximus's gritted teeth. His entire body shook. He stood there, eyes locked onto the knives at his sons' throats. The last rays of light were choked out by dark clouds. He slowly pulled a paper out of his partial ring and stared at it. That was the first time the siblings had ever heard their father curse. It was unnatural to hear a curse come from his mouth.

"Don't!" Doevm suddenly yelled. He nearly keeled over in a coughing fit but he willed himself to yell again. "I don't know what you need Soul Magic for but don't give it to them!" The sudden burst of energy seemed to catch the War Monks off guard for a moment. One reeled back and knocked him flat with a single blow.

"We trust you!" Cerlius screamed, following his brother's lead. He couldn't explain why a sudden rage surged up inside of him. He only knew he had to keep yelling: "You never give up. You're the hero. You never lose!" Their guards shoved the siblings' faces into the dirt. No matter how much the siblings squirmed, they couldn't raise their heads any longer. Father alternated his gaze from the map to the siblings and back to the map again. A vein bulged at his forehead. That was the second time the siblings heard him curse, and the last.

"Eric," The tormentor said with a scowl. "Go receive the map and this can finally be over. I've had enough of this nonsense."

"Yes sir," Eric bowed to his masters. He turned towards Maximus and looked up in a silent prayer to the goddess. At that moment, with lightning and thunder storming through the valley, he stood at the eye of the storm. A small sliver of light shone down upon him as a small hole opened in the clouds, a hole just wide enough to aim a bow and arrow.

Thunder echoed, disguising the sound of a single arrow as it whistled downwards. The black arrow shaft was a mere blur in the dark valley. It was only Eric, who had looked up in a silent prayer to the goddess, that saw a purple crystal point. It ran through one of his masters' hearts, killing the man before he hit the ground.

"That's a demon's arrow!" thunder drowned out Eric's cry.

The tormentor jabbed a finger towards father and roared out: "He's a heretic after all!" The War Monks split up with half going towards Maxmius and the other half dragging the hostages away.

"No that wasn't me!" Maximus bellowed as Cerlius was was dragged away. War Monks swarmed out of the monastery and charged at him.

"Father!" Celrius and Doevm cried out.

Father raised his sword and charged in: "I'm coming for you, just live!"

The tormentor shoved the two guards away and dragged the siblings towards the dungeon himself. "You two, you think your lies can break our righteous sect? Well I'll show your father what it means to cross us."

It took a hundred casualties before the hero retreated.

Three days passed and the dungeon's doors never opened once. Eric would visit every day and knock as hard as he could and scream until he couldn't anymore: "It was the demons. They're the ones at fault!" He was expelled from the monastery for sympathizing with a heretic.

After three days, the tormentor alone emerged from the monastery's dungeon. In his arms was a small wooden crate. He walked across the sparring grounds, up the stairs, and to a wooden door. He knocked and swatted at a swarm of flies that gathered around the box. "I need you to deliver a note and a package to the Draken residence."